Franken and Klobuchar vote ‘no’ on Senate ‘Stupak amendment’

On Tuesday evening, the U.S. Senate voted 54 to 45 against the Nelson-Hatch amendment, the Senate companion to the U.S. House’s Stupak amendment, which would eliminated abortion services in the health insurance exchange included in the heath reform bill being debated on Capitol Hill. Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar voted against the measure, a vote that generated praise from reproductive health groups and church-state watchdog organizations.

“Planned Parenthood serves tens of thousands of women every year through our health centers across the region and has worked tirelessly on behalf of those patients for affordable, quality health care,” said Sarah Stoesz of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. “On behalf of the more than 60,000 women Planned Parenthood health centers serve, we thank Senators Klobuchar, Franken and [Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota] for standing up for women’s health by defeating the Nelson/Hatch amendment.”

The Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State also praised the vote against the amendment. “Women should be free to make decisions about reproductive health based on their own consciences, not the political decrees of church hierarchies,” Lynn continued. “Religious dogma must never be imposed through force of law.”

Franken spoke out strongly against the amendment in a floor speech last week: “The amendment stipulates that health plans cannot cover abortion services if they accept even one subsidized customer — even if the abortion coverage would be paid with the private premiums that health plans received directly from individuals,” Franken said. “If adopted, this would mark the first time in federal law that we would restrict how individuals can use their own dollars in the private health insurance marketplace.”

Franken’s full remarks are below.